Julian

Below was shot on a d800 (with Atomos Ninja) and I don't believe it could have been any better.  As you pointed out, Andrew isn't primarily a stills photographer, so if he wants to have fun dissing the optical view-finder why should we begrudge him ;)  In the end, I think we all agree, ALL viewfinders are limited.  There are pros and cons.  In the end, the viewer doesn't know what viewfinder was used, if any! 
 
What I love about the video below is how it demonstrates the a perfect transition from photographer to filmmaker.  Jacek Dylag obviously started out, and is primarily, a stills photography.  If he had used Blackmagic cameras, or any other non-still camera, would he have been comfortable working?  I wonder.
 
My epiphany this morning is DSLRs are perfectly capable of giving professional results to the stills photographer, and should be used by them.  However, artists starting out IN film should work with RAW or Panasonic.  We have to give credit to Andrew for looking into the d800 again.  It shows a very open mind.  I loaded the hack.  It won't make me switch to the d600 as a primary video camera, but it did improve it and that wouldn't have happened if Andrew didn't pave the way.  I don't want to sound like I'm a fan of Andrew, that would be going too far! Yet credit must be given where credit is due due. :)
 

Very nice detail.  Just can't believe how clean the image looks.  Especially like the 2nd video (YT) with the wind farm/docs in the background.  Just amazing detail and colors!  I can't wait for this camera!  Thank you for all the tests!

Shot some people today!
 

Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 DG Noctricon OIS (handheld)
Cinema 4K - 4096x2160
Cinelike D - Ungraded
Aperture: f/1.6 (Vari ND filter used)
Shutter: 1/50
ISO: 200
White Balance: Daylight

The battery is excellent by the way. Shot 179 4K clips today (10-20 seconds) between 11:30 - 15:00, camera was on pretty much all of the time. Still 2/3 full.

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

Are you calling my cat fat!? :p

I absolutely love the GH4.

I bought a 5D Mark II a while a go to shoot ML raw but actually I never use it because the workflow is just too much trouble for me.

The GH4 is small, it has pretty much everything you need. Great EVF, great flip screen. Focus peaking, zebras, good customizable profiles, electronic level. I love the 96 fps slomo. The quality isn't as good as normal 1080p but it is a lot of fun to use. Also it has a perfect built in time lapse mode, and electronic shutter so it won't wear out the camera.

The 4K 100mbps files are very easy to work with. In Premiere CC I don't notice any difference with 1080p, only exporting takes longer (like 25 minutes for this video). I'm using a 3 year old pc: Intel i5 2400, 16GB, GTX660, SSD for software, files are on a normal hdd. Haven't tried grading in resolve yet, will do soon.

I edited on a 5760 x 2160 timeline but Premiere doesn't let me export that size (max 4096), so I exported to 3840x1440 because I think that will scale the best on 1080p screens. You can download the 4K file from vimeo.

For me it's a perfect camera. I'm just a hobby shooter, I can just grab it and go... No need for rigs or whatever extras. Can adapt pretty much every lens to it. Just have to grab a speed booster of some sort.

Only wish I have left is stabilisation. There aren't many native m43 lenses with OIS, except for the zooms and they are either cheap with small aperture or pretty expensive (12-35mm 2.8). I'd love some cheap-ish primes with OIS.

This anamorphic lens is tiny btw.

Great job with the tests, Julian.  That rolling shutter skew seems very minimal given the speed of travel, was it shot in 4K or FHD?

Hah. I immediately recognized the song.
 
I also found that song on soundcloud a year or so ago, favourited it and thought "This would be a lovely song for a video" :)

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

Sadly the comparison images seem to be gone. Anyway, it is simply impossible. That DP can't beat physics either. Yes, they gather more light, but they distribute it to a bigger image circle because they have to cover medium format film. So you will loose that light. If there would be some kind of speed booster for medium format, you could bundle that light onto a full frame sensor and actually win an F-stop.
 
On the other hand, a 50mm 1.4 on a full frame camera has a lot of light fall of in the covers (vignetting). A medium format lens on a fullframe sensor wont have much light fall off wide open because you are only using the middle of the image circle (which is the brightest). So maybe that's the difference he's seeing. Claiming f/4 is like f/2, that is a two stop difference. A f/1.4 lens might have close to 2 stops light fall of in the corners, so there you'll probably see a difference, but that's gonna be it.

It's a fake press release designed to fool people. Knock yourself out if you want to remain open to every bit of bullshit on the internet, but I think a bit of skepticism goes a long way.

More slow motion:

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

That was one of my main reasons to always pick up the GH3 for a long handheld shoot. The battery life is insane. A full day on a half battery.

The battery is excellent by the way. Shot 179 4K clips today (10-20 seconds) between 11:30 - 15:00, camera was on pretty much all of the time. Still 2/3 full.

Recently I got a cat, so now I can make proper test videos :P
 

 
Panasonic GH4 firmware 1.0
Lens: Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 + >Petit Cinevision 1.5x anamorphot
 
4K @ 24 fps (3840x2160)
Cinelike V profile, ungraded
 
All shots at f/2.8, 1/50.
ISO around 4000.
 
Soundtrack: "Menehune Dance" by James Pants (jamespants.com)
 

 

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

Beautiful shots, Julian!
 
The iso 6400 shot seems surprisingly good for such a small sensor. 
 
Your footage really makes me wish that the GH4 tech will trickle down to GX7-like models sooner rather than later, so I can convince myself to upgrade from the Sony NEX :)

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x

slow motion video looks great - thanks for sharing :)

I've been playing with the GH4 for a while now. I'll share my video's here. Shot a lot more material, still have to edit/upload it. Will do so in the following days.
 
Go over to Vimeo/YouTube for all the details in the lenses/profiles/settings used. You can download 4K files or high bitrate on Vimeo.
 
Cinema 4K mode - sunset and lowlight. The 14mm makes razorsharp 4K images. Also used a cheap 200mm f/3.5 Vivitar lens. Hard to get the focus exactly right and maybe not really suitable for 4K. For the video on Vimeo I used pretty high iso values. Shots with the birds are 3200 for example.

 

 
96 fps slomo test: with shallow dof shots it is pretty sharp. I have some slomo sufing shots as well, the resolution looks less good with very detailed scenes.

 
Short test shot at ISO6400 in C4K.

 
Anamorphic test with Minolta MD 28mm f/2.8 and Petit Cinevision 1.5x